


Reset

by May



Category: Death Note, Homestuck
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-08
Updated: 2013-01-08
Packaged: 2017-11-24 04:17:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/630314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/May/pseuds/May
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A group of players know that they have a null game. They know that they can disappear into oblivion or they can reset the universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reset

**Author's Note:**

> A crossover I've mulled over and come up with several different ideas for, so this is just one of them, I guess.

Last time you died, you rose in turquoise and blue, the garb of a fool. Your mind is your greatest weapon and you could be the most dangerous thing in the medium. You weren't fully aware of that, however, until you had spent some time inside it. Through your sprites and your consorts, you understood very quickly what your role really meant. Maybe, though, you were too clever by half.

Your prince looks at you like he cannot believe it.

"No," he says, "there must be a way out of this. This ending isn't for us."

He buries his head in his hand and you think, for a horrible moment, that he's going to scream. Instead, he grits his teeth. The tension sparks along the air. You don't know if you want it to start cracking, now, or to dissipate, later.

"There's no way out," you say. You're fourteen years old. You've died five times, already. You aren't quite sure you haven't yet acclimatised yourself to the fact that you won't be coming back, this time.

You've tried to break your game apart with the logic and reason you're so good with, even after your seer started telling you that it was pointless. Now, his head is bowed, his hood pulled forward over his eyes. You know what he's listening to. Or, rather, you don't quite know, but you can half-guess.

"There is for us," said the prince, tersely, quietly, "come on, you of all people should know that fatalism is ridiculous. If you're smart enough, you can beat it."

He grins, and it's strained.

"No," says the seer, "you always thought that you were good enough that you could beat paradox space, itself. You're no more than anyone of us, than anyone else who has ever played this game. The best we can do is go out before the end comes."

"If we die, and I mean die for the last time, we are all cowards," replies the prince.

Your maid, bright in her own darkness, speaks up. "He told me we had the choice," she says, "but he also tells me that if we go on, I can protect us. I can hide us while the game can still be won."

"What's the point if we can't play it?" retorts the prince, "It's as good as losing. And I still don't know why he talks to her. She's not that smart."

The maid is about to snap back at him, but is interrupted by the heir. "I hate to agree with the asshole, but he's right," he frowns when the maid turns her glare onto him, "not about her, but about not winning. What's the point if we won't be there?"

"You're forgetting," says the seer, "that we will exist, again. if we choose to continue, we will exist both as ghosts and as new selves at the same time."

"It would be interesting to see myself succeed at something," reasoned the knight, "if I can't live past fourteen, here, perhaps I can watch myself do so somewhere else."

The heir in his purple can be bright-eyed with furious intent, but he settles at this. "Yeah...that'd be okay, I think," he reasons, "I could be the best."

"I think what you're all ignoring," chimes in the mage, "is that there isn't really any choice at all. We die or we die. He's just prettying it up."

The prince swallows, then. "I'm just scared of that," he says, quietly, "I'm scared of knowing I won't come back this time."

The sylph touches his arm, smiling. "It'll be okay," she says, "we can do it."

The prince smiles. "Yeah," he says, "I kinda want to see what I do when I grow up."

The page nods in agreement. "I bet we'll all still be friends in the new world."

You die at the right moment, so that none of you resurrect. You enter the bubbles.

Then you know what happens. He gives your world to a breed of horrors (or, maybe, they are given to the world) and establishes himself king. You and the prince hunt for each other's name and face, both in the name of justice. You are still a weapon, though you fog the minds of those around you to hide how powerful you really are. The maid is the prince's shield, the knight his sword. The heir both follows and narrows his own path. In the end, only the mage, with his toys, is left. Perhaps unknowingly, he gathers every descendent in the orphanage you will have grown up in, and so the new players are prepared to win.

In the dreambubbles, you often wonder if the prince is satisfied with what he turned into.


End file.
